KANE & LYNCH 2 TO BE SKINNED WITH GAMESPOT ADS

Feb 12 2008

London, England – In a surprising turn of play, Kane & Lynch 2, tentatively slated for release late 2009, will feature in game advertising from Gamespot.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a former employee of Eidos Interactive broke the surprising news.

“It has been planned for a while. The bosses were so sure the first game was going to be a hit that planning on the sequel started almost a year ago. They’ve been looking into all kinds of areas to gain in game advertising, and they had this existing relationship with Gamespot, so they inked a deal. Of course after the meltdown they got a little skittish, but are going ahead with the plan.”

Indeed, in game advertising is becoming a more and more common way for developers and publishers to pay down the costs of game production. It has been estimated that industry wide revenue for this type of branding will reach nearly USD $2 billion by the year 2010. Considering the events of the last few months though, one might think that both Eidos and Gamespot (and their parent company Cnet) might want to distance themselves from one another, especially in respect to this IP.

“From what I was told they considering scuttling the deal after the incident with Gamespot, but both sides agreed it would be financially prudent to continue. I guess hoping people won’t remember the incident by the time the game comes out,” continued the ex-employee.

“I get that this deal was done before all of the controversy, and they have a contract in hand, but both side should see the danger of stepping into this territory again,” said industry analyst Geoffrey White. “It caused so many headaches the first time, they are just asking for more trouble. No matter how much money the two sides stand to gain from this deal, it would seems to me the potential negative press they are going to garner would be enough to have them just back away from the deal. Of course it is entirely possible that by the time the game actually comes out, people will have forgotten about the controversy. Of course, they will probably will have forgotten about Kane & Lynch by then anyways, so maybe it won’t matter.

Representatives from both companies declined to comment on the report. A current Eidos employee did speak with us anonymously. He had no knowledge of any deal between the two companies, but did talk about the fired employee, stating that he has been bitter after his termination, which apparently was a result of playing a game from a rival company during his lunch break.